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October 04, 2002 |
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Mystery shrouds Dele Famous athletes seem to have lifestyles much more enjoyable than the rest of society. Television shows currently follow star athletes around, documenting in detail their ostentatious existences and tacitly reminding everyone else how happy money and fame can make a person.But for former NBA star Bison Dele, this was not the case. Dele found the lifestyle empty and unfulfilling. So he did something that few would have the courage or self-assurance to do. He walked away. Dele was a star center for the Detroit Pistons after winning a championship ring with the Chicago Bulls in 1998. Soon afterward, he changed his name from Brian Williams to reflect his Native American heritage. People scoffed at the time, but the inscrutable Dele didn't care. He then signed his name to a $35 million contract with the Detroit Pistons. He was set. But after one season with the Pistons, Dele must have realized that something was missing from the glamorous lifestyle of the professional basketball star. And that's why he walked away from his career in 1999, leaving more than $30 million on his contract. He camped in the Australian Outback, went to Europe with only a backpack, ran with the bulls in Pamplona and even dated Madonna for a time, according to an ESPN Magazine article by Tim Keown. After a while, he decided to make the South Pacific his home. He would live out of his 55-foot catamaran, the Hakuna Matata. In February, his brother, Miles Dabord, showed up. Miles had trouble keeping a job for much of his life, and Dele reluctantly supported him financially. But Dele took him aboard. Dele was never heard from again. His boat turned up in September, repainted and renamed, with Dele's girlfriend, Serena Karlan, the boat's captain and Dele nowhere to found. Then Dabord turned up in Mexico on life support. He was pronounced dead on Sept. 27, and evidence in the boatpointed to him as the murder of the crew, according to the article. But now, a much different story has emerged. According to an Oct 3 article on espn.com, Dabord's former girlfriend, Erica Weise, has told authorities that Dele and Dabord got into a fight on the boat, and Karlan was killed attempting to separate the two. Dele then allegedly killed the boat's captain with a wrench after he threatened to report Karlan's death to authorities. Fearing for his own life, Dabord then murdered Dele with Dele's gun, according to Weise. Weise said that Dabord told her what happened on Sept. 7 right after he was arrested attempting to buy $152,000 in gold using Dele's name. Panic-stricken, he then fled to Mexico. Now there is no one left who knew exactly what happened on the boat. And there are mysterious gaps in the story. Wiese met Dabord in Tahiti on July 8, but she said he did not tell her anything until nearly two months later. Just as Bison Dele's life was shrouded in obscurity, it appears his death was as well. Tragically, it may have been Dele's desire to live life on his own terms that led him to the Pacific Ocean and a death that may never be fully understood. |
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